EPISODE 6: Teresa Roncon
Erica Ehm gets personal with Teresa Roncon about becoming the fair maiden of heavy metal of MuchMusic, how being a feminist helped her career, and why she left Much at the height of her popularity.
Teresa talks about her early career as a news reporter and how she landed her gig at CityPulse Entertainment and eventually the Power Hour. She shares her father’s advice that gave her the confidence to leave TV, go back to school and completely reinvent.
Also, Erica and Teresa have fun comparing notes on the men in their lives and discover some surprising connections.
Show Transcript
Announcer:
The guys from Kiss have arrived, they snuck in the back door. You spend your whole life doing your first three albums, and then suddenly everybody needs your attention. Erica Ehm's the Reinvention of the VJ, a flashback on the career that made them who they are today. On this episode ...
Erica Ehm:
You know that day on the set of Power 30, we're not doing it in the basement today. It's too cold, so we're going to do it nice mid range here.
Teresa Roncon:
Nobody would allow that today, have a presenter have a bunch of papers. I'm not saying it looked good, but that was very representative of what we did.
Announcer:
This is Erica Ehm's Reinvention of the VJ. Now here's Erica Ehm.
Erica Ehm:
Hi there, I'm Erica Ehm, and thank you so much for tuning into what is sure to be a headbanger's dream on this episode of my Reinvention of the VJ podcast. My guest today has been called the fair maiden of heavy metal, always smiling, highly intelligent, ever elegant. That's the way I see her. It always surprised me that she ended up as the host of the Power Hour, a show about headbanging and heavy metal. Of course, I'm talking about Teresa Roncon, who joins me on the show today, where we will compare notes on life then and now for both of us. I'm going to tell you something, they're shockingly similar.
Erica Ehm:
Before we jump into our interview however, if this is your first time tuning into my podcast, let me give you a little bit of background. Reinvention of the VJ is my unscripted and up close conversation with the eclectic and much loved, and desired in this case, hosts that you may have grown up watching on Much. While all of our personalities and our approaches were different, there is one thing that we do all have in common, and that is that each of us played a small part in Canada's most influential pop culture platform. Then as all good things do, things changed and we left at different times and for different reasons, each of us headed off on our own next adventures. It's that story, the story of what happens after Much. The reinvention, the resilience, the luck, the struggles and really, it's the perspective that intrigues me.
Erica Ehm:
For the last 14 years, I've been running one of Canada's largest platforms for moms, it's called YMC.ca, and my job has been connecting moms with brands. Listen, 14 years is a long time, so I'm hoping that this show will give me some ideas while I consider what the next chapter of my life is going to be. But you know what is actually most important about this show, you. I'm serious, I'm really making this show for you. Yes, it's going to be a trip down memory lane, but I'm also hoping that you find some interesting tidbits or insights into what it takes to get what you want in life, how to reinvent and deal with tough times, or even redefine what success is. These kinds of ideas that hopefully you can apply to your own life, and no matter what, I can guarantee you, you will know Teresa Roncon way better after our conversation.
Erica Ehm:
So in today's show, we also have two questions from listeners for Teresa. So stay tuned at the end of the show, I'm going to tell you how you can be a part of the show as well. Now, it's time to introduce my MuchMusic coworker, or actually my ex MuchMusic coworker, I don't know, once you're in, you stay in, Teresa Roncon. I'm so happy to be doing this with you. Welcome to the show.
Teresa Roncon:
Erica, that was an incredible intro. Have you considered content writing for a living?
Erica Ehm:
Exactly. Seriously, Teresa, probably all the people that I'm going to be interviewing on this show, I really do feel like you and I have many similarities in our career path and in our lives as well. So we're going to talk, we're going to get a little personal, okay? I'm warning you about that. I think we're going to have a lot of fun in our conversation. I don't really know much about your background, all I know is that you were born in Portugal, I know that's really important to you, and the next piece of your life that I know is that you went to university studying theater. So my assumption is that you were a kid that was craving the stage. Is that who Teresa was growing up?
Teresa Roncon:
Actually, some of that is true, is correct, because the story's kind of complicated. I was actually born on Angola in Africa, but I'm Portuguese. My father was an engineer and was a young lieutenant who had been conscripted to fight in that horrific Colonial War that the Portuguese guys were forced to go to because it was a fascist dictatorship at the time and that the poor African continent had inflicted on them, 500 years of Colonialism. Anyways, through no fault of his, he ended up there and he was recently married, so he took my mom and I was born there.
Teresa Roncon:
But being born in lowland Angola was accidental, only in that it drew my interest towards Africa and exploring. So I actually grew up in Lisbon, Portugal, and immigrated to Canada when I was in grade seven, and don't you know that I knew your husband, Terry, in grade seven at Zion Heights?
Erica Ehm:
What?
Teresa Roncon:
Yes, we went to junior high school together.
Erica Ehm:
I did to know that.
Teresa Roncon:
Now you do. I think I might have told you 20 or 30 years ago. When you married him, Terry ran into me at some point and said, "I'm married to Erica." I said, "You know me, is it Terry? Terry from Zion Heights?" Yes, so that is a long time ago, so our paths do intersect slightly.
Erica Ehm:
Little bells every time our paths intersect on the show today. That's hilarious. So you met Terry in grade seven when you had just come from Lisbon then.
Teresa Roncon:
I didn't speak a lick of English. I knew how to say, "Mr Smith's umbrella is black," because I had some English lessons. But no, I didn't speak English. So fast forward to university, I was still kind of lost and not really knowing what I wanted to do. But you asked me about performing, so one of the things that was amazing about my education in Portugal is that I went to music school, a very liberal arts, creative place I played piano for my whole life. My grandma is a violinist, she played with the Lisbon Philharmonic for her entire career, as well as taught.
Teresa Roncon:
So I grew up in a musical environment, my dad loved, loved music. So my mom too, more classical. My dad was a kid that in the '50s used to order 45s from London, because they didn't sell them in Lisbon, and bring his collection of records, little 45s to play. I think Bill Haley & the Comets was his favorite. So I came with that education, that background, so if you ask me about performing, I did perform, I did do recitals. But when I ended up at university, I didn't know what the heck I wanted to study. This is what I want to talk to you about, is how you're so driven, you were focused, but I was not focused. I just wanted to have fun.
Teresa Roncon:
Except that I loved books and I read ferociously, ever since I was very little, first in Portuguese and then in English. So I thought, "What the heck am I going to do?" I really don't know what to do, so I'm now studying English lit. When I was studying English lit, I got involved in a theaters arts' program in London, and I loved it. It was so much fun, it was really hands on and practical, but I learned early on that I'm a terrible actress. I really suck. I can be me, but I can't be somebody else. I feel like I'm always playing. Like Charlize Theron in Something About Mary where it's all a spoof, I don't think I could do it. I have so much respect for actors who dig deep and find something in themselves to perform.
Erica Ehm:
You know what's interesting? I also went to theater school and I also sucked, and I also am more comfortable in my own skin. Ding. Okay, continue.
Teresa Roncon:
That's two. But I loved the program, it wasn't a whole theater program, but I loved the whole aspect of the production. I didn't really know what to do and when I finished, I worked at a library for two days. Two. I quit after two days, I thought, "Get me out of here." I was working a lot in bars and restaurants at the time, doing a lot of bands' concerts in local bars. I ended up working at the Big Bop four nights a week. I worked at RPB and the Round Bar flipping beer bottles, opening them, and I thought I was just the cat's meow. I didn't, but I felt it was so much fun doing that.
Teresa Roncon:
I was armed with this education and I thought I really maybe would want to go into journalism, because when I was a kid I wanted to be either a journalist or an archeologist. Both required some kind of questioning. So I ended up at Ryerson doing a course and then I thought I would use my languages and volunteered at then Channel 47. Do you remember Channel 47?
Erica Ehm:
Multicultural station.
Teresa Roncon:
Yeah. I volunteered in their video library, and then they asked me to cohost the Portuguese show on the weekends. I made horrendous mistakes, my Portuguese is not broadcast quality anymore. It's good, but it's not. I did meet John [inaudible 00:09:30] in the makeup room one time, and for Halloween I dressed up as a cowboy in a pretty serious show. I thought, "That's funny." They just let me do whatever I want.
Teresa Roncon:
So then I sent City TV an audition tape and I guess I had somebody inside at City TV already, Todd Southgate, who became a really well known environmental cameraman, videographer, producer and lives in Brazil and now speaks Portuguese like me. We correspond on Facebook in Portuguese, if you can believe it. Really weird, full circle.
Erica Ehm:
Are you ready for another ding-ding-ding? I dated him.
Teresa Roncon:
I knew that in the back of my little head. I didn't date Todd, we were good friends. We were very good work colleagues. So he helped me get the job at City by putting together my tape.
Erica Ehm:
I didn't know that.
Teresa Roncon:
He was already an editor there at the time, and he did a very good job on my tape. My tape was so emotional. I was in a swing in Kensington Park with this big Alexander Pope hat and coat all wrapped saying, "Who am I? I straddle two worlds, my immigrant background. I don't really know who I am. Here I am, trying to become a new Canadian." Moses loved it, of course.
Erica Ehm:
I totally was going to bring that up, because I know that Moses always wanted to hire ethnic people, because they reflected Toronto. He was very passionate about that. So you played the Portuguese card with him.
Teresa Roncon:
Yes. I played the Portuguese card a lot, but guess what? It's mine to play.
Erica Ehm:
Yes.
Teresa Roncon:
I'm not making that up, I really truly was an immigrant from Western country and obviously did not have the same issues that many of BIPOC people have coming to this country, because I looked as Canadian at the time, or what people thought. But I didn't feel that inside of me, I felt something different. I felt like I was a different person than everybody that was walking around me. So I feel like I brought that perspective, so I got a job at City. I was very excited.
Teresa Roncon:
My first memory of walking into City was looking up and Traci Melchor was working there, and she gave me this big smile and we became friends. It was a great, great memory. After a year of being in news, which was an education onto itself, I had obviously a degree with me, but I'd only taken one journalism course, so I really learned a lot on the job, which was possible back then and it's really not now. I was thrown into the first story that I did with Lorne Honickman, and it was a home invasion. There was blood on the floor and it was a dog that had saved the house, and he said, "Then you've got to come here and then the home owner defended himself with a knife, and you've got to lift it up like this, and you've got to dramatize it." So cool, I'm going to love this job.
Erica Ehm:
How long did you do that for? How long did you stay in the newsroom for?
Teresa Roncon:
One year. So after one year, my eyes started looking over there to where you were working, to entertainment. I really was living the life, putting on a suit going to do my stories, I was doing the best I could and I was giving it 150%, but I was really drawn to entertainment. That's how I was living my life at night. I was young, I was 24 years old, I was going out to clubs, I was dancing, I was listening to a lot of music, all my friends were alternative. So I went to the news' director at the time and asked him if I could go to entertainment. He said, "Do you want a career? Or do you want to have fun?"
Teresa Roncon:
I just want to have fun, I'm only 24. I just really want to have fun, and have a job. So he was half kidding, but he knew I belonged there, so he hired me, he switched me over to entertainment. I ended up hosting the weekend news, and then I got more involved in the entertainment portion of the news and the scene. I saw your VJs doing super fun work, but I had a daytime gig, I had a full-time job. So back to your introduction, it always surprised you why I ended up hosting the Power 30, there's another audition for Moses. If you recall, there were lots of people who hosted the Power 30. Ben Gallagher, who has passed away. I think ...
Erica Ehm:
Laurie Brown.
Teresa Roncon:
Laurie Brown at one point hosted too.
Erica Ehm:
JD, JD hosted it.
Teresa Roncon:
JD hosted it. It was a very niche program, so what I was looking for was to do some VJing, to get onto that side of things and that world. I love music, I loved the energy, and because it was one show, I could do that and keep my entertainment reporting job. So the entertainment reporting job gave me interviews with ballet dancers, writers, local bands, visual artists, photographers, filmmakers. I did that all for whatever happened to be in town, reporting on the day's local entertainment news.
Teresa Roncon:
Then the VJing gave me the really fun supercharged energetic rock show. A lot of the music, I liked. Of course, it was the '90s, I loved the grunge rock era, loved it. Loved all that music. I loved a lot of the energy that the other heavy metal bands brought, those young guys, so many of them wanting to make it big in the world and wanting to be rock stars. How fun is that?
Erica Ehm:
So when you were hosting that, I had to fill in sometimes and I can guarantee that the bands hit on you all the time. How did you deal with that?
Teresa Roncon:
How did you deal with it? The bands hit on you all the time, Erica.
Erica Ehm:
I dealt with it. I dealt with it, but I'm curious, how did you do it?
Teresa Roncon:
It depends on the situation. I would say that there's no prescription for how you deal with what essentially at the time was harassment, sometimes, sometimes not. Sometimes it's flirtatious, it's a bit of a dance. So let me describe one time that was full out harassment and how I dealt with it. So I interviewed this band that were supposed to be the next Led Zeppelin, so I show up with a camera person and the producer. Tania Natscheff and I don't remember, Tania and I had lots of fun. She was really great, a very, very well researched thorough great producer.
Teresa Roncon:
The camera person, I can't remember who it was at the time. So we're in this dark little music hall and there's the A&R, the artist and repertoire rep from whatever the record label was, and the band. Even before I start to roll, I have my camera and my mic under them, the guy looks me, he said, "It's really cold in here, isn't it?" I said, "Pardon?" He said, "It's really cold." Then he looked right at my chest and he just kept his eyes on my chest. I'm a pretty friendly person, I grew up in the "girls need to be nice" era, and just something in me, but I can get hot. I just looked at him and I was serious, and it was either slap him across the face or I did what hurt him the most. I said, "You know what? This interview is over. It's over before it even began. You just missed out on your chance to go on Canada's national music station, and I guarantee you, I'm going to back to the station, I'm going to tell everybody what you did and nobody is going to interview you." The A&R person was like this.
Erica Ehm:
Jaw dropped.
Teresa Roncon:
Yeah. It was a young woman, I said, "Okay, bye." I don't know what he thought of that, I never saw him, talked to him. I didn't even give it another second thought.
Erica Ehm:
Do you think ...
Teresa Roncon:
I was furious.
Erica Ehm:
I bet you were furious, and so well handled. Do you think there were different expectations put on the women who were on camera much? Or were the women and men expected to do the same job in the same way?
Teresa Roncon:
Erica, the reality is, I never really gave it a lot of thought. I just knew I could handle myself, and I have to tell you that I was, again mentioned, born in Portugal, very fascist dictatorship until 1974, very [copla 00:18:17] country, very strict. My family was not like that, we were fairly, within that context, we were very liberal. I was a feminist through and through since as long as I can remember, understanding what the word feminist is. In my school, liberal arts' college, Glendon College, part of York University, probably 70% female, high LGBTQ population.
Teresa Roncon:
I'm a feminist, I always have been. I didn't think about my job, just because I wore short skirts and had this job where I was out there interviewing people being friendly, in no way did I expect that they needed to treat me with disrespect. I expected that. So when it happened, and [inaudible 00:19:03], I was young and it's taken me longer to absorb it all. But I felt that my job, they expected the same thing out of my job as they expected out of the men. I know there were salary issues, I know very well there were salary issues. That's another, that's different. I think what you're talking about is in the performance of the position, of the job, right?
Erica Ehm:
Let's talk salary, did you ever confront someone in a position of power about this disparity in salaries?
Teresa Roncon:
I wasn't in a position to do it, because I had no comparables. For me, I was the only weekend entertainment anchor, the only night anchor. So typically, the night anchor has a lesser salary than the 6:00 anchor, because there are less viewers, less advertising, less money. I was 23 when I got the job.
Erica Ehm:
So was I, ding-ding-ding.
Teresa Roncon:
It's funny. So I remember you applied for your job. So here's another story going even further back, not at all interesting. But I actually, I finished grade 13 early, because I had accumulated all my credits. Remember grade 13 in Ontario? Because I know you're from Quebec, from Montreal. I had decided to work for six months saving money so I could travel in Europe. What job did I get? I got the job as an assistant to the lawyer of City TV when it was at 99 Queen Street East.
Erica Ehm:
What?
Teresa Roncon:
I worked for Elise Orenstein, who was the lawyer at the time. Elise was in her 20s, she came to work wearing leather pants, she was the general council for City TV. I typed out her agreements, because I was a super fast typist, because of my piano playing. When you're a classical pianist, you're the fastest typist in the world. Back then, people typed, not computers.
Erica Ehm:
Did you type my contract?
Teresa Roncon:
I don't know, I don't remember. But I typed agreements all the time, and I typed this play that everybody wanted me to write, I had to type out the script from cursive, people had written notes. But I was downstairs and saw you going in for an interview with Moses. You were wearing a hat, and I said, "There's that cute girl with the big brown eyes. I recognize her and her funky hat. I think her name is Erica." The next thing you know, you were on TV. Moses had talked to me about being a VJ, he said, "What do you think?" I said, "I don't know about that. I'm going back to university." I hadn't even studied yet, I was a kid.
Erica Ehm:
So you had already crossed paths with Moses way before.
Teresa Roncon:
Just very briefly, it was all about ... I was working, I guess they were just scouting people, young people internally that might suit the bill. But I needed to get my university education and to mature and to learn a little bit, and read another 500 books.
Erica Ehm:
And party at the Big Bop, of course.
Teresa Roncon:
The Big Bop four nights a week.
Erica Ehm:
I have a question that one of our listeners left on voicemail for you to answer. So I'm going to play that now for you.
Teresa Roncon:
Okay.
Amy Ballan:
Hi, Erica. It's [Amy Ballan 00:22:17] calling, I miss you, I hope you're doing well. I love the idea of your Reinvention of the VJ podcast and wanted to hopefully be one of the first ones to call your new 800 number. So I'm calling with a question for the podcast, because I'm actually currently working with a client who is a relatively new owner of one of the last remaining independent retailers on Queen West, Groovy Shoes. So here's my question, I'm wondering about what the culture of Queen West was like back in the day? Where did you and the VJs eat? Where did you drink? Where did you shop? Groovy Shoes is on Queen West, now 47 years old, and it's one of really less than a small handful of independent retailers left. [inaudible 00:23:04] are great, but the flavor of the street, which is truly iconic in Toronto, in no small part because of 299 Queen West, and the vibe of the street is just so different now.
Teresa Roncon:
Trip down memory lane, Amy. I remember where I ate very well, I used to love and was a treat to go to the Queen Mum. I used to always love going to the Rivoli.
Erica Ehm:
Me too. The Queen Mum and the Rivoli, of course. Pad Thai, hello.
Teresa Roncon:
Hello, all the time. Further west, I loved Hacienda, the burrito place. I also went to a really special treat was Peter Pan.
Erica Ehm:
Of course. My girlfriend Jackie worked there. What about the clothes that you wear, were they also found on Queen Street at all the boutiques?
Teresa Roncon:
Definitely. So as an entertainment reporter, because I anchored, I was able to do a contra deal. So people gave me clothes, and then at the end of the show, they said who the clothes were by. That was something that happened back in the '90s. So I wore fun people like Peach Berserk, Kenny Carpenter. Sometimes I wore Comrags.
Erica Ehm:
Ding-ding-ding.
Teresa Roncon:
Pam Chorley, remember that store that she had?
Erica Ehm:
Of course, Fashion Crimes.
Teresa Roncon:
Fashion Crimes, yes. But I wore a lot of vintage, I shopped a lot on Queen West, West. I wore Fluevog's, what happen to all my Fluevog's? I should have kept them.
Erica Ehm:
I think that a lot about my outfits now, that they would have been right in style today. But here's another thing that we had in common, Doug MacRae.
Teresa Roncon:
Yes.
Erica Ehm:
So you were dating a guy that I dated, and he was an artist on Queen Street.
Teresa Roncon:
Yes. He was an artist on Queen Street, he painted these massive murals. Very talented, professionally trained from OCAD, he had studied. No, those were really fun, fun days. This is one of the things that I love about City and MuchMusic was that the people that worked there, and I'd say in the entertainment side, we really lived the life. We didn't just read a script and then present it.
Erica Ehm:
No, there was no script.
Teresa Roncon:
There was no script. It's so funny today, I told on my ... My boss sent a link to a bunch of MuchMusic videos to our team to say, "Teresa had a life before us." And "us" is Heart & Stroke, I've worked there for almost 10 years. Anyway, the video is the best loved MuchMusic videos of all time, and you were in there. I was in their Power 30 and there's me reading with all these papers, what were all these papers? I'm reading my notes, nobody would allow that today, having a presenter have a bunch of papers. I'm not saying it looked good, but that was very representative of what we did, which was we just did it, we just did it ourselves.
Erica Ehm:
That's right, we did it all ourselves.
Teresa Roncon:
We did it all ourselves, yes.
Erica Ehm:
I'll put you on the spot for fun, what would you say was the penultimate day that you had on MuchMusic? Describe it for me.
Teresa Roncon:
One was at MuchMusic and another one was offsite. The one at MuchMusic was when Chris Isaak came to town, the crooner. Chris Isaak was a hottie, probably still a very good looking guy, and back then it was all, "Chris Isaak. Chris Isaak is going to be in the studio." I got to interview him, I'm not really sure why, I think it was because of my City TV stuff. So sometimes, my City TV entertainment ended up on the MuchMusic channel. There's a lot of crossover, because we always crossed over material. I interviewed him upstairs on that little balcony that they have facing the parking lot. He was lovely. So we decided to play it up, play the fact that he was such a ...
Erica Ehm:
A hunk?
Teresa Roncon:
A heartthrob. So we did this whole thing about me going in to interview him and being like ... Doing the interview and then leaving, and then he gets into a limo and he waves goodbye. I'm swooning. Anyway, it was a little like Teresa the terrible actress, and I always say it was a penultimate moment, only because it was so much fun. It was pure fun. It wasn't that difficult, his music was easy to listen to, he was dating that top model, one of those ones that didn't get out of bed for under $10,000. Not Linda Evangelista, but her friend. Her friend was another, Christy ...
Erica Ehm:
Turlington?
Teresa Roncon:
Turlington, yeah. Anyway, that was definitely a highlight. There's too many. This is the thing, Erica, somebody will ask you, and you've got 10. Leonard Cohen at then the Hummingbird Center, with Rebecca De Mornay hanging on for dear life to his arm, "Don't you take him." Interviewing him, that was really, really special. That was an amazing time, moment. I think Metallic in Molson Park in Barrie.
Erica Ehm:
Listen to how eclectic your answers are, the different types of people that you had access to, to interview. How does that, is there an interview that you did that literally changed the way you think?
Teresa Roncon:
I know Leonard Cohen was pretty deep. He was very funny and witty, and I asked if there was any song that he ever really wished he had written, but he hadn't written. He answered Blueberry Hill. I found my thrills ... That was so interesting. So it's hard to answer that if there's one interview, I can tell you that my experience as a news' reporter brought a lot to my music interviews, because you saw people sometimes at the depths of their despair, and people that had been, had crime perpetrated against them, and then when you went into music, you realized that they're doing a job, they're there for their record company. So you realize there's a lot behind what they're saying.
Teresa Roncon:
When you go a little deeper, you start getting to who the person really is. I liked, like you, I liked to have a conversation. Sometimes if you have your five-question script, there's some things you want to ask right off the top, but then you get into the good stuff. So I think it's not so much one person that changed, it was just the style of going a little bit deeper and having that conversation. Also, I really wish I had path today, back then, because I think I would have really kicked some serious butt.
Erica Ehm:
Me too.
Teresa Roncon:
I'm way smarter.
Erica Ehm:
And you have more insight and more perspective, et cetera. For sure, I totally agree, which is why I'm having so much fun doing these interviews for two reasons. Number one, because I think my skill as an interviewer is better, and also, everybody who used to work at Much is way more interesting today. I think, anyway.
Teresa Roncon:
Most people get more interesting as they age, if they continue to do something worthwhile, something with their brains. That's just normal, right? I just spent a week with my 81 year old mom, if I can say how old she is. She goes, "Teresa, why did you say how old you are?" Why wouldn't I say how old I am? Why would I deny my experiences to the world?
Erica Ehm:
So why did you leave City and Much? Dream job, fun, it was challenging, I guess, why did you leave?
Teresa Roncon:
Yes, good question. I left because I got an offer of a lifetime to go host, cohost an international show on the Discovery Channel that took me traveling all over the world doing adventure travel, eco adventure travel. I know that it was a dream job at City, but it was my first job. I wanted to try my hand at doing something else.
Erica Ehm:
Did they beg you to stay, or did they say, "See ya."
Teresa Roncon:
They were quite upset, I felt very badly about how it went down, it was a big surprise. I didn't really give them a chance to counter offer, but I don't like playing games like that. If I have decided in my head I'm taking a job, why am I going back to do a negotiation to do a counter offer? I wasn't using anything as leverage, I had made the decision to go somewhere else.
Erica Ehm:
So let's play the "our lives are the same" again, guess what I did after I left MuchMusic? Discovery Channel, and it was a show called Power Play, which was not dissimilar to what you were doing, extreme forms of leisure. But what's different about ...
Teresa Roncon:
I remember that show very well.
Erica Ehm:
Right, but what's different about our experience is you met your husband doing that show. How did you know that he was the right person for you?
Teresa Roncon:
You could probably say the same thing about your husband, because I knew him a little bit. We just had, first of all, we worked in the same industry. He understood what it was like to be on TV and he understood what it's like to do TV.
Erica Ehm:
Was he the producer or the director? What was his role in that show?
Teresa Roncon:
Yeah, he was my producer.
Erica Ehm:
He was the producer, okay. Yeah.
Teresa Roncon:
He was the second producer for the program, and he works for film media today still.
Erica Ehm:
Still?
Teresa Roncon:
Yes, and we just hit it off immediately. It was honestly sparks, I will say love sparks at first sight.
Erica Ehm:
That's crazy. Also, you were probably traveling around the world to exotic places, which is where romance kindles easily, I would guess.
Teresa Roncon:
You know very well, because you've traveled a lot, and I'm sure you met some people when you were traveling. But one day on the road is like one month back home, because you have shared experiences and people see you in these situations where you're in an airport, you're traveling. I remember somebody at MuchMusic, Nancy saying, "When you go on the road with a camera person, a producer, you've got to think, if you're stuck in an airport at 4:00 in the morning with all your equipment, all your gear, you're exhausted, you've had a 16-hour day, you've had nothing to eat and all you've got is half a bottle of water. Who do you want to be stuck there with?"
Erica Ehm:
The glamor of television, yes. So do you miss being on camera? Because after Discovery, you were ...
Teresa Roncon:
I did more camera.
Erica Ehm:
You did more? So what did you do?
Teresa Roncon:
So after the Discovery show, which didn't go again, it was 50 one-hour episodes, who the hell renews that? But anyway, it was an experience of a lifetime. I ended up doing some producing for Discovery and hosting another kids' show, and actually my little niece just saw it, believe it or not, they were just playing it in her virtual classroom. Then I actually went to work for CTV Toronto as a news' reporter. So I went back to news, and I really learned to write more. Again, I grew and solidified my skills and then my husband and I got married and I had kids, and I think this is around the same, because your kids are the same age as ours.
Erica Ehm:
Ding-ding-ding.
Teresa Roncon:
Yeah. Then I thought, "What the heck? What am I doing, doing local news?" I found myself at 11:00 on the 401 interviewing a gravel truck driver who was going on strike, and I thought, "Why am I not home with my baby? Why am I on the 401, cold, doing an important story about a labor strike, but why am I not home?" So I decided to go into PR, because I had been at the Scarborough Hospital interviewing the director of communications there, and I said, "I really like your job." She was like, "You know, Teresa? I think I ..." They said, "I really like your job, Teresa, interviewing people." Her name was [Yana Manolakis 00:36:23], and I said, "I think I really like your job." So she ended up hiring me, there was a position as a media relations specialist, and that's how I cut my teeth in PR.
Erica Ehm:
But didn't you go to school, didn't you study PR?
Teresa Roncon:
Yes, I did later, in my ...
Erica Ehm:
So you got the job first, and then you went to school?
Teresa Roncon:
Yes.
Erica Ehm:
That's backwards, by the way.
Teresa Roncon:
No, no. It's fine. Don't you ever want to think, "I'm in a field and I don't know enough about it." Look how many executives go to get their executive MBA when they already are an executive.
Erica Ehm:
Right.
Teresa Roncon:
So I just didn't feel like I knew enough about it and I felt if I'm going to continue doing this, I might as well learn. But I have to tell you, Erica, I don't know if you've ever gone back to university as an adult with little toddlers, you get much better marks. It's unbelievable.
Erica Ehm:
Because why?
Teresa Roncon:
You study, you study. You study and you're focused and you care, and you're not lost. Or not to say you aren't, that's my question for you at the end.
Erica Ehm:
Wait a second, I have a question for you, you mentioned being at the Scarborough Hospital. If I remember correctly, you were there during the SARS outbreak, so tell me about that experience with the perspective of COVID now.
Teresa Roncon:
First of all, SARS didn't affect the world like COVID. It was very contained to an outbreak in hospital settings. There was some community spread, but it was still fairly contained. I'm obviously not a doctor, I think it was quite contagious virulent in its symptoms, so people were able to tell right away they had SARS. People that had SARS got very, very sick, I don't recall any of this asymptomatic people walking around spreading it. But I have to tell you, it was a really, really defining experience for me in my life as a person. Anyone that worked through SARS remembers it very clearly. I have a chronology of events, because I was the media relations point person at the Scarborough Hospital, ground zero for SARS in Canada. Some days, I had 40 interview requests.
Erica Ehm:
From around the world?
Teresa Roncon:
Yes, yes. I had requests from reputable news' magazines all around the world, everybody wanted to know what was going on. Here's Teresa Roncon who just got her first job in PR, dealing with it. Obviously, I had a team and I was the media relations specialist, but I learned, I learned a lot. I learned a lot about messaging, I learned a lot about communications. That's one of the reasons I went back to school and I got a certificate at Ryerson, because I really wanted to be that person with a background and understood the history of communications and various aspects.
Teresa Roncon:
But I learned a lot, and at one point, I was even in quarantine, because I was exposed. I went into the ICU and there were people in the ICU, I brought a CVC camera crew. So I realized that I needed to be in quarantine, because it was a very, it was a bit murky like today, like the rules. By then, we were already wearing masks, I left the Scarborough Hospital, zipped by my kids' daycare, grabbed them, went home and that was it. I stayed in quarantine. I had a baby at home still, he was only one. It was very traumatizing, a lot of people were traumatized by it.
Erica Ehm:
Wow.
Teresa Roncon:
The thing that I remember the most that traumatized me was that people died alone. People died from other things, other conditions alone in hospital, because hospitals were all on lockdown. It made me so deeply sad.
Erica Ehm:
So you left?
Teresa Roncon:
This happens with a lot of jobs where there's like a trauma at the job for some reason, a big event happened at the job, and the people who were there that saw that through just needed to leave. You need to move on from there. That's when I went there, my kids at OLG, Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, and I worked there for six years. There was another whole thing there with a stolen lottery ticket, where I learned a lot about issues in management. That's where I actually went to school when I went to Ryerson.
Erica Ehm:
So did you go to school while you were working?
Teresa Roncon:
Yes, and had the little kids. That's what I'm saying, isn't it funny how I didn't find time to do my homework when I was in university the first time, but the second time around, I worked full-time, I raised two kids, I had a husband at home too, I think by then a dog, I'm not sure, and went to school. It was part-time, it took me a while. I think I got six out of the eight credits, so the last two are media relations and I thought, "My goodness, I could be teaching it by now."
Erica Ehm:
Right.
Teresa Roncon:
But still, I went to school, but I loved it. I loved going to school as an adult.
Erica Ehm:
I do dream about it, I do dream about it.
Teresa Roncon:
You should go back.
Erica Ehm:
That will be part of my reinvention in some way, I just will need to decide what exactly I want to go to school for, and that will be, who knows? Who knows?
Teresa Roncon:
Let's talk about it.
Erica Ehm:
You and I are going to have to put on masks and drink coffee or wine, something like that. Yeah. I guess the question that I have for you is, how do you know when you need to pivot or reinvent, because you've done it so many times?
Teresa Roncon:
I've done two big ones, right? Within those, I've had a few things. I would always say, it's so funny, when I first got the job at City, I told my dad how much I was making and it was very little. I was making more as a bartender, by the way, four nights a week with 20 hours of work, but that's because it was tips and all of that. I said, "It's not a lot of money." He said, "First of all, it's an opportunity of a lifetime, secondly, success doesn't come from money. Success comes from the feeling of a job well done inside of you."
Teresa Roncon:
I thought, "Okay, that's fine." So I haven't always felt that, but mostly I feel I do, and when I feel I'm not, there's always reasons, there's fluctuations. I think you need to pivot, for me, when I needed a challenge, when I'm bored, when I need to see what else is out there. But I'm a huge, huge believer, proponent on work/life balance. I admire women that have these big jobs, and I honestly don't know how they do it, and they still appear to have time for their children and their husbands and their partners. I only have so much space, and so I think you need to pivot according to the things that are important to you in life. If that moment, you need more money, then go for a job that makes more money. What's wrong with that? You need a job that keeps you at home, like I did back then when I had the little ones, that's what I did.
Erica Ehm:
So you're working at Heart & Stroke right now, and I know that being authentic is super important to you and that being authentic, to you, leads to success. So how does working at Heart & Stroke tie into that idea?
Teresa Roncon:
Heart & Stroke is a nonprofit, I believe in the mission. I believe in the mission of the work that we're doing.
Erica Ehm:
Which is?
Teresa Roncon:
We're collecting donations for research into heart disease, stroke, vascular cognitive impairment. We advocate for healthier policies in our government. We gather communities of people with lived experience of our diseases, so they can talk to each other and figure out what makes life easier for them, have somebody to connect with. So knowing that when I'm writing content for the public, knowing that when I pitch the media, when I pitched you, Erica, to say, "I've got this great story." I believe in the product that I'm pitching, so that's how authenticity plays into it for sure. In PR, you need to believe in what you're doing, or you need to be there for a reason that's an authentic reason for you.
Erica Ehm:
I would say that it's not just in PR, I think in life you have to believe in what you're doing. When we all worked at MuchMusic, I think that we all believed in the power of music bringing people together and I feel like you're still doing that, you're doing the things that are important to you. I think that's fantastic. So I'm going to tell you, I did get a question from someone who listens to the show, his name's Mike, he's in Oakville, and he asked, "Who is going to interview you, Erica?" Since I was a VJ on MuchMusic, and I was like, "Not going to happen. It's my show."
Erica Ehm:
But it did make me think it would be fun if, since I'm interviewing interviewers, to give everyone one question that you would like to ask me. So this is your chance, Teresa, one question, what would you like to ask me? Thanks, Mike, for that opportunity.
Teresa Roncon:
So you mentioned it just before we started, and I thought I would ask you a question that relates to a question I asked Alanis Morissette at the MuchMusic Video Awards in New York City, which was an amazing experience for me. What I asked her was, did you dream it would be this big? So I'm going to modify it slightly for Erica and ask, did you think you'd have this big career? Did you have a plan?
Erica Ehm:
That's a good question. Damn you, Teresa. I had zero plan when I started, all I knew was that I needed to work in the music business, that was it. I would do anything, and I did do anything and everything in order to get into the music business. There was no MuchMusic, so it wasn't like I had my eyes on getting a job on MuchMusic, because I was part of the invention of MuchMusic, if you will. There was nothing to aspire to in that case. When I got the job, it was the right job, because I wanted to be part of the music business, I wanted to be an actor, and I wanted to be a teacher.
Erica Ehm:
So really, it's all tied up. Then what I've discovered while being on MuchMusic is that being a role model was really important to me, and that I understood that I had great power by being in front of the camera. That became really important to me, and I felt like I should speak out, because I had the platform. So when I had kids, the same thing happened, Teresa, because I was struggling. I was the worst new mom, I was crying all the time, couldn't nurse, super depressed. I didn't know a lot of women who had kids at that point, I should have called you. Sorry. I was too freaked out, I was really struggling.
Erica Ehm:
I started a TV show called Yummy Mummy, and the objective of the show was specifically to speak about the dark side of being a mom and the idea that everyone is worried about the kids, but no one is really paying attention to the struggles of modern moms who are used to working, who are used to often being A-types, who are struggling with a new balance at home. So it's the new generation where mothers don't always handle 100% of the domestic work and that kind of thing. So I started this TV show, which eventually became a website and it's been 14 years and I've been, I guess a spokesperson for empowering women who have kids. No, I wouldn't have planned it, but I do know that if there's one thing that's always been consistent for me is that I deeply believe in what it is that I do for a living and that my passion leads me to my jobs. So that's consistent, is that an okay answer for you?
Teresa Roncon:
Very good answer. I ask because we have kids and I think today a lot of things are planned out, and we try to guide our kids with plans. But like you, I had no plan.
Erica Ehm:
But I did have a plan.
Teresa Roncon:
You did have a plan?
Erica Ehm:
I did have a plan. I was super driven, by the time I was 14 or 15, I was super driven. My kids, our kids are around the same age now, they're late teens, I think is that how old your kids are now, late teens?
Teresa Roncon:
19 and 21.
Erica Ehm:
Mine are 16 and 20, so they're pretty much in the same space. I can see things that light my kids up, but I don't know who they're going to be. All I do is I tell them, "Whatever you want to do, I'll support you. Really, go for your dreams, do what you love."
Teresa Roncon:
I completely agree. Sorry, I misspoke, you didn't have a plan to be in that job, you had drive.
Erica Ehm:
Yes.
Teresa Roncon:
You had a plan to drive yourself to doing something you wanted. I misspoke in how I positioned that, but no, you absolutely did.
Erica Ehm:
Teresa, I love talking to you. It's funny how we worked in the same place for I think it was seven years, but I don't think that we ever actually sat down and had this kind of really deep conversation, and even though our lives were ding-ding-ding, so similar in so many ways.
Teresa Roncon:
It was busy, we were at work. Even though you were there, you were actually on all the time and you were preparing and you're running off with a camera. I wanted to tell you one more thing before I left, when you asked me what was the most fun thing and memorable experience, and I gave you the story about Chris Isaak, it's really hard to just put one, just talk about one. But I wanted to say, one of the most memorable experiences was hosting the MuchMusic Video Awards before it was a thing. I think it was the second or third year, and it was all just very loosey-goosey.
Teresa Roncon:
So they decided they were going to send someone to New York, and it was me. Can you imagine? I just thought, "Okay, that's great." I didn't plan my wardrobe, I grabbed a couple of things, and I don't even think that I thought much except, "Just bring some nice shoes and maybe a little jacket." Now everybody plans everything out, on Instagram, you see all the wardrobes laid out for day-one, day-two, day-three.
Erica Ehm:
Glamsquad, yes. Everybody has a Glamsquad.
Teresa Roncon:
So that was not like that at all, so that's actually where I interviewed Alanis Morissette was at Radio City Music Hall or Carnegie Music Hall, I can't recall. I was in a live truck and it was really busy, because all the artists were playing, so we parked the truck kitty-corner from the hall and I stood on top of the live truck for two hours.
Erica Ehm:
Now, wait a second, were you there with David Kines as your producer?
Teresa Roncon:
Yes, and I see David now once in a while.
Erica Ehm:
So here's a ding-ding-ding, I did the same thing as you maybe the year before or the year after. I was standing out on the street, I wasn't allowed to go into the awards, and we would be broadcasting in between when MTV gave us some space in between, and I never saw the actual show.
Teresa Roncon:
Same, exactly. Except that I was outside while the artists were, like you probably, I was in a scrum with the other reporters, and as the artists came in, you tried to get them to talk to you. Michael Jackson walked by me and of course, he's not looking at anyone, and I just yelled at the top of my lungs, "Say hello to Canada." He turned around like, "Who's that weird ... Who said that?" It was all very, very on the fly. Anyway, that was a really fun, funny experience and all the bands that we interviewed.
Erica Ehm:
Thank you so much, Teresa. Thanks to everyone who stuck with us throughout this show. I really enjoyed talking to you, Teresa. One of the things that stuck with me is the idea of being authentic, and that the idea of success being doing something that you love, rather than it just being about money. I do think that's true, and to add to that, I would also say that sometimes you can find things that you love to do that are not your job, you get paid for your job and then you do what you love as a hobby.
Teresa Roncon:
Absolutely. Your job doesn't always have to be your passion, but you do need to have some passion, it's important to have passions.
Erica Ehm:
So for those of you who are listening right now, or for you, who is listening right now, thank you so much for staying with us. You really are such an important part of the show, I would love for you to add to the show by giving us a call. We put up a special phone line and the number is 833-972-7272. If you call up, you can leave a voice message and you could tell, give us feedback on the show, what you like, what you didn't like, you can suggest other people that should be included in the show, you can suggest questions that you would like asked, and you can just reminisce about some of the highlights or low-lights from watching MuchMusic over the years, because I know MuchMusic has meant so much to so many.
Erica Ehm:
So thanks again for listening and for being part of Reinvention of the VJ. I will hopefully see you next week with another episode of Reinvention of the VJ. Here's to living a life filled with music, meaning and many reinventions.
Announcer:
Thanks for listening. Follow Erica Ehm's Reinvention of the VJ podcast, subscribe and follow more episodes. Click to ReinventionOfTheVJ.com. Podcast produced in collaboration with Steve Anthony Productions, editing and coordination, [inaudible 00:55:07] Communications Inc, copyright 2020.